Overview: Inviting students into eScience--characterized by increasingly large collaborations, TB and PB data sets, with data mining and simulation as frontier practices--both requires and is increasingly made possible through e-Learning. These developments threaten to widen the "digital divide" and further marginalize underrepresented groups. But the crowd-enabling trends in collaboration technologies put control of e-Learning tools and access to e-Science at the fingertips of teachers and students. I will present two brief illustrations: a developed example of wiki-based democratized eScience projects using I2U2 e-Labs and google docs, forms and maps; and a roadmap for applying some of these same technologies to data-driven projects on the BOSCO network in Northern Uganda.
I2U2 e-Labs are one type of the many online portals where students are invited into e-Science. Here's an example from the LIGO (Laser Interferometry Gravitational Wave Observatory) e-Lab. e-Labs provide students with an introduction to the science involved, access to data and data analysis tools, and a freely-navigable learning environment with a helpful workflow map for students who choose to follow it. The environment is backward-designed around learner outcomes which are posted for teachers along with pre and post tests, rubrics, and community pages providing follow-up for teacher professional development. Student and teacher logbooks are also integrated into the site, and simple poster presentation tools are included as well.
Teachers can manage eScience invitations using crowd-friendly collaboration tools. e-Labs are developed and supported by a virtual organization of specialists with scientific, educational and information technology backgrounds. They are one approach to facilitating and managing the invitation to work with data that is flowing at a rapidly increasing rate from scientific collaborations everywhere. But many of the tools employed by professionals in developing these portals into eScience are available to teachers and students without specialized training. If teachers and students are to manage the flow of available eScience opportunities--evaluating, choosing and combining them--they will want to create portals of their own design, where multiple opportunities can be presented and regularly modified. Collaboration tools like wikis, screencasts, shared documents and intelligent maps have been combined together with e-Labs in this student- and teacher-created democratized project interface. (See another example for a broader range of student project opportunities here.)
These same collaborative tools can be used to empower teachers and students anywhere to become eScientists at work on questions of most interest to their own communities. Inviting students into collaborative participation in international eScience projects is effectively an exercise in place-based education in a global village. But not every educational community will choose to explore such larger and theoretical questions: all have pressing concerns in their own back yard, and some will want to choose projects with greater local applicability. Best practices in eScience education on an international level can be brought to localized eScience opportunities. Crowd-friendly collaboration tools which provide teachers and students with greater flexibility in managing internationalized eScience projects become essential for managing localized versions. A model for classroom-to-classroom interaction around highly localized needs in Northern Uganda is sketched here as an example of emerging opportunities made possible through these collaboration tools.
I2U2 e-Labs are one type of the many online portals where students are invited into e-Science. Here's an example from the LIGO (Laser Interferometry Gravitational Wave Observatory) e-Lab. e-Labs provide students with an introduction to the science involved, access to data and data analysis tools, and a freely-navigable learning environment with a helpful workflow map for students who choose to follow it. The environment is backward-designed around learner outcomes which are posted for teachers along with pre and post tests, rubrics, and community pages providing follow-up for teacher professional development. Student and teacher logbooks are also integrated into the site, and simple poster presentation tools are included as well.Teachers can manage eScience invitations using crowd-friendly collaboration tools. e-Labs are developed and supported by a virtual organization of specialists with scientific, educational and information technology backgrounds. They are one approach to facilitating and managing the invitation to work with data that is flowing at a rapidly increasing rate from scientific collaborations everywhere. But many of the tools employed by professionals in developing these portals into eScience are available to teachers and students without specialized training. If teachers and students are to manage the flow of available eScience opportunities--evaluating, choosing and combining them--they will want to create portals of their own design, where multiple opportunities can be presented and regularly modified. Collaboration tools like wikis, screencasts, shared documents and intelligent maps have been combined together with e-Labs in this student- and teacher-created democratized project interface. (See another example for a broader range of student project opportunities here.)These same collaborative tools can be used to empower teachers and students anywhere to become eScientists at work on questions of most interest to their own communities. Inviting students into collaborative participation in international eScience projects is effectively an exercise in place-based education in a global village. But not every educational community will choose to explore such larger and theoretical questions: all have pressing concerns in their own back yard, and some will want to choose projects with greater local applicability. Best practices in eScience education on an international level can be brought to localized eScience opportunities. Crowd-friendly collaboration tools which provide teachers and students with greater flexibility in managing internationalized eScience projects become essential for managing localized versions. A model for classroom-to-classroom interaction around highly localized needs in Northern Uganda is sketched here as an example of emerging opportunities made possible through these collaboration tools.